As we honor those who have fallen in service to our country, we must also remember those who returned from battle with the physical and psychological scars of war.
At www.standup4vets.org, concerned Americans can sign a petition urging Congress and the President to take action so the men and women who fought to defend our nation don't have to fight to get the medical care they need and deserve.
For far too long, tight budgets and political posturing have kept some veterans from getting proper medical care from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Disabled American Veterans is demanding that Congress enact new laws to require improved screening and treatment for psychological wounds, including post-traumatic stress disorder, and traumatic brain injuries; increase support for family caregivers; and reform veterans health care funding so that it is sufficient, timely and predictable.
Thanks for any help you can provide in getting the word out to those who may want to get involved in our online mobilization and call for our government to stand up our veterans.
David E. Autry
Deputy National Director of Communications
Disabled American Veterans
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
What Should We Really Remember on Memorial Day?
It is believed to have been an event that occurred spontaneously in dozens of places across the United States as we struggled to heal in the aftermath of that violent and prolonged conflict.
As the wife of a soldier about to deploy to Iraq, something about the idea of those women decorating the graves of soldiers after the Civil War simultaneously hurts and comforts me. It hurts because I know most of those women were widows. Yet it also comforts me to know that those women found solace in each other and in honoring their soldiers: in decorating those graves, they were acting to make a nation remember and recognize both their soldiers' sacrifice and their own sacrifice.
It was also an act of social activism. Those decorated graves said that no one life was to be forgotten, no one life was to be lost in vain. It was an act that said not only was a life lost, but their were lives left behind that were IMPACTED by the loss of that life.
While the purpose of Memorial Day is to remember the men and women who gave their lives while serving our country, I propose it is even greater: it is a day to recognize not simply that the servicemember will have no more days ahead of him (or her) by virtue of their death, but that the days preceding his or her death were defined by hardship and courage. Thus, the sacrifice is more than just the death, it is everything leading up to it; all that was left undone (or was done without him or her) and all whom were left behind.
Please consider who and what we are really talking about when we say "dying in service of our country:"
We are talking about men and women who (post-Civil War era) die on foreign soil, thousands of miles away from parents, spouses, and children. Men and women who die not having seen their child being born or their parent pass away. Men and women who die not having seen their child's first steps or high school graduation. Men and women who die after spending their last holidays in jungles or deserts, or on mountains or ships, amid their "family" by circumstance but not by choice.
We are talking about men and women whose final words of love will never actually be heard by those they love. Men and women who were called baby killers in the 1970s and illiterate in 2008. Men and women whose voluntary service today prevent other men and women from being drafted and yet they are told they don't deserve a draft-era GI Bill because they volunteered for this.
These are the men and women we are remembering on Memorial Day.
Should my husband die in Iraq, I pray that he is remembered for his sacrifice. A sacrifice that, in my mind, begins the day he leaves our arms but for the rest of the world will be memorialized on the day he dies, thousands of miles away from us, having missed our youngest son's first day in Kindergarten, having possibly spent Christmas and our anniversary in the desert, and having called out for a mother who won't hear him (or maybe, just maybe, me), when he passes from this world to the next.
For my part, I know that I will join the long line of widows before me in decorating his grave to remind this country that he left behind many who loved him, many who do remember him even if the world doesn't, and that the sacrifice for this nation was not his alone.
Carissa Picard is a licensed attorney, the founder and President of a non-profit, non-partisan veterans and military advocacy organization, Military Spouses for Change, and the spouse of an active duty Army pilot soon to deploy to Iraq. She is also a writer for Military.com's 2008 Election Center and an op-ed contributor.
Military Wives Fight Army to Help Husbands
Listen Now [12 min 34 sec] add to playlist
Tammie LeCompte meticulously filed every Army document about Ryan LeCompte in chronological order in binders. Senate aides say these bulging binders helped convince them that Army officials were mistreating her husband.
By the time Ryan LeCompte was transferred to Walter Reed Army Hospital in late 2007, he was hardly walking or talking — or even eating on his own. He spent most of his time slumped, staring at the floor.
James Pitchford, aide to Sen. Christopher Bond (R-MO), is so outraged at how Fort Carson treated Ryan LeCompte that he made a rare exception to an unwritten rule on Capitol Hill that staff members never speak to the media, except anonymously "on background."
Army Spc. Ryan LeCompte's chief psychiatrist at Walter Reed Army Hospital rejected a claim made by officers at Fort Carson that he was "faking" his symptoms — and concluded that he was severely ill as a result of the war. Read the diagnosis.
All Things Considered, May 16, 2008 · There's a formidable group of warriors out there — and they're fighting America's military. Spouses of troops who have come back from the war with serious mental health problems have made it their mission to force the military to give the troops the help they need.
In the process, they've transformed themselves from "the silent ranks," as the military traditionally calls wives, into vocal and effective activists.
Tammie LeCompte is among them. When her husband, Army Spc. Ryan LeCompte, came back to Fort Carson, Colo., after two tours in Iraq, he was a different man — angry, withdrawn and isolated. In 2007, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, and he eventually became so depressed and unable to function that doctors feared he might die.
So when Tammie LeCompte saw that the Army was not giving her husband intensive treatment — and, worse, his commanders were punishing him for not doing his job — she launched a campaign against the Army that eventually caught the ear of Congress. Today, doctors say that
Tammie LeCompte's battle may have saved her husband's life.
Carissa Picard, founder of a national group called Military Spouses for Change, has never met Tammie LeCompte, but she recently launched a Web site specifically to teach spouses how to pressure the military to give proper care to returning troops with health problems. Picard says
Tammie's own battle reflects how wives across the country have transformed themselves into advocates in order to save their own husbands.
"When I feel like the well-being of my husband or my family is at stake, that taps into a very fundamental place for women," says Picard, who is married to an Army helicopter pilot. "That's like a Mama Bear place. We're fighting to protect the people that we love."
Lecompte's Return from Iraq
When Ryan LeCompte came back from Iraq in January 2006, he started suffering from the classic symptoms that afflict large numbers of troops who've fought in wars. Back in Iraq, his officers hailed him as "one of the platoon's best soldiers," who always "worked tirelessly, without complaint."
But at home, he became a hermit. He avoided his family most of the time. When he didn't, he'd fly into a rage.
Tammie says she would hear cries in the middle of the night, and she'd find him curled in a ball on the floor. During the day, there'd be a loud noise, and he'd drop to the ground like someone was shooting.
But at least Ryan realized he needed help. His Army records prove it.
Tammie drew on the filing skills she learned as a clerk in the military's insurance program, and she started putting just about every document that the Army has ever written about her husband in clear, plastic sleeves in two huge black binders.
These records show that LeCompte started going to the mental health center soon after he got back from Iraq. The doctors sent him to classes on anger management and alcohol abuse, and group therapy, and they prescribed various drugs — but he didn't get intensive treatment.
And LeCompte kept getting worse. He'd show up late for formation. He seemed disoriented. He couldn't remember orders. So, according to Army records, his officers made him scrub the toilets and do other menial chores — to punish him.
Tammie says LeCompte took it out at home, shouting at her and sometimes violently shoving her. She says she started thinking about leaving him.
Activism Sparks
Tammie LeCompte was desperate. She went to Ryan's officers, and she begged them to support him instead of treating him as if he were malingering. They said he was an alcoholic and faking his symptoms. Tammie went to the inspector general at Fort Carson and asked him to investigate why Ryan wasn't getting proper treatment.
He dismissed her allegations and said the Army was acting appropriately.
So Tammie started sending letter after letter to just about anybody she could think of, including members of Congress and veterans advocates like Andrew Pogany, who helps soldiers with serious mental health problems get help dealing with the Army.
She pleaded with them to get Ryan better treatment. And finally, those vets and senators wrote Fort Carson, asking what was going on.
Michele Cassida, one of the key staff members at Fort Carson who handled the calls and letters from Congress, said Ryan is "very lucky" to have his wife as an advocate.
"I don't know if a lot of people would go through what she's been through," Cassida says.
Cassida pored over LeCompte's records, and she interviewed his officers and fellow soldiers.
"Ryan Lecompte is a very sick solder — very, very sick — and needs help," Cassida says. "I have seen him literally deteriorate in front of my eyes."
By the summer of 2007, LeCompte had stopped talking or walking. He wouldn't eat on his own, so Tammie had to spoon-feed him.
But Cassida says the more Tammie begged for help, the more his officers retaliated.
Cassida says she can understand that Ryan and Tammie might have rubbed some people the wrong way. People with PTSD can be infuriating. Tammie can be blunt and abrasive. But Cassida says that's no reason to mistreat them.
For instance, Ryan's officers ordered him to line up in formation every day, even though he was almost a vegetable. So Tammie would push him to formation in a wheelchair at 5:30 every morning. The officers cited LeCompte for conduct "unbecoming of a soldier," they demoted him and cut his pay, and then they started the process of kicking him out of the Army for "patterns of misconduct."
"I don't understand how they can victimize a family like they have done," Cassida says. "This is vindictiveness. This is evilness. This is not what the Army is about."
Commanders who were involved in LeCompte's case declined comment or didn't return phone calls from NPR. A spokeswoman at Fort Carson said she couldn't reach any one else qualified to talk about the case.
But commanders at Fort Carson sent letters to Congress stating, "LeCompte was given access to all appropriate medical and psychological treatment" and "was treated appropriately by his chain of command."
'Too Many Worries'
By late last year, Tammie seemed on the verge of a breakdown. She says she was borrowing money from relatives and friends. She looked and sounded exhausted, as she juggled raising their children and fighting the Army — and serving as a full-time nurse for Ryan. "I've got too many worries," she said at the time, fighting back tears. "I'm worried about my husband. I'm worried about my kids. And there's not 10 of me. I'm only one person."
But suddenly, just before Christmas last year, Tammie's two-year battle paid off. The congressional staff members and veterans groups who had been rallying around her persuaded Fort Carson to send Ryan to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. Walter Reed has suffered its own share of scandal, but medical specialists generally agree that its doctors are among the best in the military.
Once he arrived there, Ryan LeCompte spent most of his time slumped on his bed, like a frail 90-year-old in a nursing home.
The team of psychiatrists on Ryan's case had already made their diagnosis: He was so depressed that his body was shutting down. The most widely used psychiatric manual, published by the American Psychiatric Association, calls it "major depressive disorder ... with catatonic features."
Officials at the Pentagon refused to let Ryan's doctors talk with NPR. But sources who worked with them say the doctors believe that Ryan might have died, if Tammie's advocates hadn't persuaded commanders at Fort Carson to send him to Walter Reed.
Two of her most influential advocates are seasoned staff members on Capitol Hill — James Pitchford, who focuses on veterans' issues for Sen. Christoper Bond (R-MO), and Krista Lamoreaux, who works for Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD). Commanders at Fort Carson sent Ryan to
Walter Reed only after the aides hinted that the senators might make trouble for the Army.
Pitchford says none of this would have happened without Tammie LeCompte. He says she reminds him of Erin Brockovich — the woman Julia Roberts played in the hit movie of the same name, after she exposed a corporation that was poisoning people.
Tammie is "a pit bull," Pitchford says. "She is a fighter." He says he hopes Julia Roberts or another famous actress will make "The LeCompte Story."
Doctors at Walter Reed have sent Ryan LeCompte back home to South Dakota. He's getting therapy and medical care at a nearby VA hospital.
Ryan and Tammie's battle isn't over, because Army officials still haven't announced whether they're going to kick Ryan out of the service for misconduct, as they had planned, or will retire him with honor and all his benefits, as members of Congress are insisting.
But Ryan's walking again, with a cane. He's talking a little. He feeds himself. And sometimes, Tammie says, he even smiles.
Related NPR Stories
Sep. 9, 2007Army Helps Wounded Soldiers Adjust
Dec. 4, 2006Soldiers Say Army Ignores, Punishes Mental Anguish
Aug. 22, 2007Grief Camp Helps Children Cope with War Losses
Tammie LeCompte meticulously filed every Army document about Ryan LeCompte in chronological order in binders. Senate aides say these bulging binders helped convince them that Army officials were mistreating her husband.
By the time Ryan LeCompte was transferred to Walter Reed Army Hospital in late 2007, he was hardly walking or talking — or even eating on his own. He spent most of his time slumped, staring at the floor.
James Pitchford, aide to Sen. Christopher Bond (R-MO), is so outraged at how Fort Carson treated Ryan LeCompte that he made a rare exception to an unwritten rule on Capitol Hill that staff members never speak to the media, except anonymously "on background."
Army Spc. Ryan LeCompte's chief psychiatrist at Walter Reed Army Hospital rejected a claim made by officers at Fort Carson that he was "faking" his symptoms — and concluded that he was severely ill as a result of the war. Read the diagnosis.
All Things Considered, May 16, 2008 · There's a formidable group of warriors out there — and they're fighting America's military. Spouses of troops who have come back from the war with serious mental health problems have made it their mission to force the military to give the troops the help they need.
In the process, they've transformed themselves from "the silent ranks," as the military traditionally calls wives, into vocal and effective activists.
Tammie LeCompte is among them. When her husband, Army Spc. Ryan LeCompte, came back to Fort Carson, Colo., after two tours in Iraq, he was a different man — angry, withdrawn and isolated. In 2007, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, and he eventually became so depressed and unable to function that doctors feared he might die.
So when Tammie LeCompte saw that the Army was not giving her husband intensive treatment — and, worse, his commanders were punishing him for not doing his job — she launched a campaign against the Army that eventually caught the ear of Congress. Today, doctors say that
Tammie LeCompte's battle may have saved her husband's life.
Carissa Picard, founder of a national group called Military Spouses for Change, has never met Tammie LeCompte, but she recently launched a Web site specifically to teach spouses how to pressure the military to give proper care to returning troops with health problems. Picard says
Tammie's own battle reflects how wives across the country have transformed themselves into advocates in order to save their own husbands.
"When I feel like the well-being of my husband or my family is at stake, that taps into a very fundamental place for women," says Picard, who is married to an Army helicopter pilot. "That's like a Mama Bear place. We're fighting to protect the people that we love."
Lecompte's Return from Iraq
When Ryan LeCompte came back from Iraq in January 2006, he started suffering from the classic symptoms that afflict large numbers of troops who've fought in wars. Back in Iraq, his officers hailed him as "one of the platoon's best soldiers," who always "worked tirelessly, without complaint."
But at home, he became a hermit. He avoided his family most of the time. When he didn't, he'd fly into a rage.
Tammie says she would hear cries in the middle of the night, and she'd find him curled in a ball on the floor. During the day, there'd be a loud noise, and he'd drop to the ground like someone was shooting.
But at least Ryan realized he needed help. His Army records prove it.
Tammie drew on the filing skills she learned as a clerk in the military's insurance program, and she started putting just about every document that the Army has ever written about her husband in clear, plastic sleeves in two huge black binders.
These records show that LeCompte started going to the mental health center soon after he got back from Iraq. The doctors sent him to classes on anger management and alcohol abuse, and group therapy, and they prescribed various drugs — but he didn't get intensive treatment.
And LeCompte kept getting worse. He'd show up late for formation. He seemed disoriented. He couldn't remember orders. So, according to Army records, his officers made him scrub the toilets and do other menial chores — to punish him.
Tammie says LeCompte took it out at home, shouting at her and sometimes violently shoving her. She says she started thinking about leaving him.
Activism Sparks
Tammie LeCompte was desperate. She went to Ryan's officers, and she begged them to support him instead of treating him as if he were malingering. They said he was an alcoholic and faking his symptoms. Tammie went to the inspector general at Fort Carson and asked him to investigate why Ryan wasn't getting proper treatment.
He dismissed her allegations and said the Army was acting appropriately.
So Tammie started sending letter after letter to just about anybody she could think of, including members of Congress and veterans advocates like Andrew Pogany, who helps soldiers with serious mental health problems get help dealing with the Army.
She pleaded with them to get Ryan better treatment. And finally, those vets and senators wrote Fort Carson, asking what was going on.
Michele Cassida, one of the key staff members at Fort Carson who handled the calls and letters from Congress, said Ryan is "very lucky" to have his wife as an advocate.
"I don't know if a lot of people would go through what she's been through," Cassida says.
Cassida pored over LeCompte's records, and she interviewed his officers and fellow soldiers.
"Ryan Lecompte is a very sick solder — very, very sick — and needs help," Cassida says. "I have seen him literally deteriorate in front of my eyes."
By the summer of 2007, LeCompte had stopped talking or walking. He wouldn't eat on his own, so Tammie had to spoon-feed him.
But Cassida says the more Tammie begged for help, the more his officers retaliated.
Cassida says she can understand that Ryan and Tammie might have rubbed some people the wrong way. People with PTSD can be infuriating. Tammie can be blunt and abrasive. But Cassida says that's no reason to mistreat them.
For instance, Ryan's officers ordered him to line up in formation every day, even though he was almost a vegetable. So Tammie would push him to formation in a wheelchair at 5:30 every morning. The officers cited LeCompte for conduct "unbecoming of a soldier," they demoted him and cut his pay, and then they started the process of kicking him out of the Army for "patterns of misconduct."
"I don't understand how they can victimize a family like they have done," Cassida says. "This is vindictiveness. This is evilness. This is not what the Army is about."
Commanders who were involved in LeCompte's case declined comment or didn't return phone calls from NPR. A spokeswoman at Fort Carson said she couldn't reach any one else qualified to talk about the case.
But commanders at Fort Carson sent letters to Congress stating, "LeCompte was given access to all appropriate medical and psychological treatment" and "was treated appropriately by his chain of command."
'Too Many Worries'
By late last year, Tammie seemed on the verge of a breakdown. She says she was borrowing money from relatives and friends. She looked and sounded exhausted, as she juggled raising their children and fighting the Army — and serving as a full-time nurse for Ryan. "I've got too many worries," she said at the time, fighting back tears. "I'm worried about my husband. I'm worried about my kids. And there's not 10 of me. I'm only one person."
But suddenly, just before Christmas last year, Tammie's two-year battle paid off. The congressional staff members and veterans groups who had been rallying around her persuaded Fort Carson to send Ryan to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. Walter Reed has suffered its own share of scandal, but medical specialists generally agree that its doctors are among the best in the military.
Once he arrived there, Ryan LeCompte spent most of his time slumped on his bed, like a frail 90-year-old in a nursing home.
The team of psychiatrists on Ryan's case had already made their diagnosis: He was so depressed that his body was shutting down. The most widely used psychiatric manual, published by the American Psychiatric Association, calls it "major depressive disorder ... with catatonic features."
Officials at the Pentagon refused to let Ryan's doctors talk with NPR. But sources who worked with them say the doctors believe that Ryan might have died, if Tammie's advocates hadn't persuaded commanders at Fort Carson to send him to Walter Reed.
Two of her most influential advocates are seasoned staff members on Capitol Hill — James Pitchford, who focuses on veterans' issues for Sen. Christoper Bond (R-MO), and Krista Lamoreaux, who works for Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD). Commanders at Fort Carson sent Ryan to
Walter Reed only after the aides hinted that the senators might make trouble for the Army.
Pitchford says none of this would have happened without Tammie LeCompte. He says she reminds him of Erin Brockovich — the woman Julia Roberts played in the hit movie of the same name, after she exposed a corporation that was poisoning people.
Tammie is "a pit bull," Pitchford says. "She is a fighter." He says he hopes Julia Roberts or another famous actress will make "The LeCompte Story."
Doctors at Walter Reed have sent Ryan LeCompte back home to South Dakota. He's getting therapy and medical care at a nearby VA hospital.
Ryan and Tammie's battle isn't over, because Army officials still haven't announced whether they're going to kick Ryan out of the service for misconduct, as they had planned, or will retire him with honor and all his benefits, as members of Congress are insisting.
But Ryan's walking again, with a cane. He's talking a little. He feeds himself. And sometimes, Tammie says, he even smiles.
Related NPR Stories
Sep. 9, 2007Army Helps Wounded Soldiers Adjust
Dec. 4, 2006Soldiers Say Army Ignores, Punishes Mental Anguish
Aug. 22, 2007Grief Camp Helps Children Cope with War Losses
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Returning Warrior Mental Health Protection Act
Purposes:
1. To effectively identify service members in crisis upon return from a combat zone.
2. To provide a means by which returning warriors exhibiting signs of post-combat stress can receive mental health care, treatment, and evaluation before their behavior escalates to the point of involuntary separation from the military.
3. To create uniformity among military units in the management of service members engaging in misconduct or otherwise exhibiting signs of mental health distress upon return from a combat zone.
1) Definitions
a. Military mental health provider -- anyone licensed to provide mental health care and recognized by the Commander of the military treatment facility (MTF) as capable of administering such care.
2) Post-deployment misconduct
a. If a service member engages in misconduct within two years upon his or her return from a combat zone AND has no history of misconduct prior to his or her deployment, the Commander shall suspend disciplinary action and/or administrative discharge pending the following:
i. Service member must undergo a comprehensive mental health evaluation and TBI screening and be given 30 days to participate in any recommended programs offered by the MTF or otherwise recommended by the mental health provider.
ii. Upon completion of the initial mental health evaluation and recommendation by a military mental health provider, the service member will be given the option of continuing with treatment and/or care at the MTF or approved civilian mental health provider for up to 180 days (from the date of the referral).
3) Referral to Warrior Transition Unit
a. Upon recommendation of a military psychiatrist and agreement by the service member, the service member must be released from his or her current unit and transferred to the WTU for further care, treatment, and evaluation.
b. Any pending or suspended disciplinary actions and/or other charges may be forwarded for disposition by the WTU Commander.
4) Personality Disorder Discharges
a. If a service member meets the following criteria, the diagnosis of a personality disorder shall qualify for compensation as a recognized disability by the DoD and VA:
i. Has been active for at least 2 yrs;
ii. Has served in a combat zone; and
iii. Has no history of such disorder noted upon his or her entrance into service.
http://www.militaryspousesforchange.com/announcements.php
1. To effectively identify service members in crisis upon return from a combat zone.
2. To provide a means by which returning warriors exhibiting signs of post-combat stress can receive mental health care, treatment, and evaluation before their behavior escalates to the point of involuntary separation from the military.
3. To create uniformity among military units in the management of service members engaging in misconduct or otherwise exhibiting signs of mental health distress upon return from a combat zone.
1) Definitions
a. Military mental health provider -- anyone licensed to provide mental health care and recognized by the Commander of the military treatment facility (MTF) as capable of administering such care.
2) Post-deployment misconduct
a. If a service member engages in misconduct within two years upon his or her return from a combat zone AND has no history of misconduct prior to his or her deployment, the Commander shall suspend disciplinary action and/or administrative discharge pending the following:
i. Service member must undergo a comprehensive mental health evaluation and TBI screening and be given 30 days to participate in any recommended programs offered by the MTF or otherwise recommended by the mental health provider.
ii. Upon completion of the initial mental health evaluation and recommendation by a military mental health provider, the service member will be given the option of continuing with treatment and/or care at the MTF or approved civilian mental health provider for up to 180 days (from the date of the referral).
3) Referral to Warrior Transition Unit
a. Upon recommendation of a military psychiatrist and agreement by the service member, the service member must be released from his or her current unit and transferred to the WTU for further care, treatment, and evaluation.
b. Any pending or suspended disciplinary actions and/or other charges may be forwarded for disposition by the WTU Commander.
4) Personality Disorder Discharges
a. If a service member meets the following criteria, the diagnosis of a personality disorder shall qualify for compensation as a recognized disability by the DoD and VA:
i. Has been active for at least 2 yrs;
ii. Has served in a combat zone; and
iii. Has no history of such disorder noted upon his or her entrance into service.
http://www.militaryspousesforchange.com/announcements.php
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